Steve Small is recognized as the nation’s leading authority on private land protection options and strategies. He has been counsel to landowners and easement holders in more than 400 transactions around the country and has been involved in the protection of more than 1.5 million acres of land. Steve’s writing comes out of his unique perspective on land protection efforts around the country. Over more than three decades, Steve has given more than 400 speeches and workshops and represented clients in more than 45 states. More than 150,000 copies of the Preserving Family Lands books are in circulation. MORE

What Readers Are Saying

“This book is right on the mark. Big corporate landowners need to learn more about the natural resources we own and control because we own land. There is unrealized value in these resources and the opportunity to do something with very long-term benefits.” — David Brand, Chief Executive Officer, New Forests Asset Management Pty Limited, […]

Steve Small’s book is a wonderful primer, and a wonderful handout, for those of us who would like to see new financial markets open up to the conservation community. Steve’s mix of techniques and approaches is challenging and exciting.” — Ted Ladd, Chartered Financial Analyst and Director, Land Trust Alliance

“Steve Small has been a pioneer in finding creative ways to use finance to conserve natural areas. And his book is a must read for all who are interested in finding new ways for the financial world and the conservation world to work more closely together, which I believe is a key to protecting our […]

After writing The Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements and three Preserving Family Lands books, Steve’s latest book ventures into new waters with a new agenda for the “business of open space” in the coming decade and after that. Based on his decades of work on private land protection transactions, Steve sees the need for the “business” to develop new ideas, new techniques, new transactions, and to reach out to more landowners. If you are interested in seeing the business of open space move forward, you MUST read this new book and you must encourage your colleagues to do the same. Steve wrote the original Preserving Family Lands twenty-five years ago as a “primer” about conservation easements and the related tax issues for landowners, their advisors, and land trusts; this new book moves the business in dramatic and necessary new directions.